The present invention relates to data communication networks and more particularly to systems and methods for facilitating interoperation between currently deployed Internet infrastructure and newer Internet infrastructure employing next generation protocols.
To accommodate the explosive growth of the Internet, a very large number of network nodes have been configured to employ IP (Internet Protocol). These nodes range from user workstations to very high throughput core routers. There have been successive versions of IP. As of the filing date of the present application, the predominant variant of IP deployed in the field is IPv4.
The Internet engineering community is planning and implementing a shift from IPv4 to IPv6. Advantages of IPv6 include an enormous expansion in the available address space to accommodate greater ubiquity of Internet-enabled devices as well as reduced reliance on cumbersome network address translation schemes which have been utilized to conserve addresses. IPv6 also provides highly useful auto-configuration capabilities.
What is needed are systems and methods to ease the migration of the IPv4-based Internet to IPv6.